Wedlock
by kayak
Summary: SPOILERS if you're not caught up to chapter 819 of the manga. Sanji is getting married to Pudding. (Written for SanjixNami Week 2016.)
A/N: Written for SanjixNami Week 2016. I jammed all the prompts except for one in here.

Wedlock

Dressed impeccably in a formal black suit, Sanji stood. A group of Capone's men surrounded the wedding ceremony, weapons and all. Capone Bege was his best man. Only a few of Big Mom's henchmen were there. His second elder brother was the only member of his family present, but he wasn't much support, considering he was passed out. Neither his father or Big Mom came. After marrying off 34 of her other daughters, Big Mom found the whole formality tedious. They ran off together after the tea party to plan who knows what. Sanji didn't care.

Weddings were suppose to be happy, they were suppose to be joyous. At this moment, Sanji felt like he was attending his own funeral. He came back in order to tell his father he wanted nothing more to do with his family and to call off the wedding. He had no intention of marrying someone he had never met. Instead he found the situation was much more dire, much more complicated than he imagine. Lives were at stake, not just his own. The lives of everyone he had ever known were at stake if he didn't obey and go through with the marriage.

So he ceded for for now. Sanji would go along with this ceremony. After all, marriage isn't permanent. That's what a divorce is for. A cynically prospect, indeed, but life can be a cruel mistress. You just have to work with what's been dealt to you.

How ironic. A long time ago, Sanji once thought, when he did marry, when he did find the girl he loved, he would never left her go.

Right now, there wasn't enough information for him to act upon. He knew his father was keeping something from him. The marriage alliance was suspicious. The urgency and the timing was strange. They could have used his second brother for the arrangement, but instead they skipped to him. Cizi was a still bachelor, though looking at his slovenly drunken form slouched on the chair, maybe Big Mom didn't care for him at all.

Anyways, it was all matter to figure out later. Sanji had a wedding to wrap up. Now where was the bride? Pudding was late. The laughable part was he still hadn't met her yet. Maybe she was also resistant to marriage like him. That would be nice. He hoped she ran away.

"All rise," spoke an attendant.

No such luck.

Sanji took a deep breath. The Pudding appeared normal in form. Given what he saw from Big Mom, he had feared something similar, but she had two normal-sized arms, two normal-sized feet and a regular shaped head. He couldn't see any more beyond that. Her face was covered by a thick heavy veil. She was, however, dressed in an abomination. Who picked the wedding dress? It had no style, no design, no form. It could have been a giant bed sheet draped around her. It had so much fabric, layer upon layer, he wasn't surprised to see her struggling slowly down the aisle.

It took a long while, but she made it.

The priest, who was very old and very near-sighted, had to be slapped awake by one of Capone's goons.

He was startled and juggled his book. "I pronounce you husband and wife. You may—"

"Start from the beginning, you buffoon," Bege barked.

The priest tried again. "Dearly beloved, we are gather here—"

"Not me, those two." He jerked his thumb at Pudding and Sanji.

The priest peered warily at Bege. "Are you sure?" he stuttered.

Bege groaned and then nodded his head at his goons. They walked over, lifted the priest off his feet and turned him until he faced Pudding and Sanji. "Now begin."

Fast forward through the boring parts, Pudding and Sanji both said their I do's.

"You may kiss the bride," the priest finished.

Sanji stood still. He wasn't going to kiss her. Call him a romantic fool, a fool who loved romantic fairy tales of the prince saving his princess. He wasn't going to give his first kiss to some random stranger, pretty or not. "Why? We're married. The kiss isn't necessary." Of course, he was being frightfully rude to the bride whether she deserved it or not, but he wasn't in the mood to be polite. He really needed a smoke after this. "If we're done, I'm going to my—"

Capone and his men drew their weapons. "Kiss the girl. I insist."

Even this was unavoidable. Sanji sighed. Not that he was worried about getting hurt or not. Only tired of everyone telling him what to do. Better get it over with. He closed his eyes and turned to Pudding. He opened them again when he lifted her veil. What he saw made his heart fluttered.

Her eyes were like starlight just before the dawn. They didn't twinkle or glimmer but were small and miraculous, something he loved looking at everyday. He almost spoke her name out loud, until she grabbed his hand to stop him.

Nami-san.

Confused, he was the happiness man alive, but then he saw the apprehension in her eyes. Suddenly he realized the ramification of her presence. How she managed to find him and to take Pudding's place wasn't important. It was the fact that she had put herself in a very dangerous situation gave Sanji great concern.

Nami simply gave him a small reassuring smile.

"What's taking so long? Just kiss her already," Capone growled, losing patience.

Sanji hesitated. He always imagined kissing Nami, but now he didn't know how. After a moment of uncertainty, he managed to grabbed a hold of her waist and brought her close, close enough to smell her familiar tangerine aroma. And ever so slowly he tilted his head until his lips met hers.

Really, it wasn't as romantic as it could have been, especially with a gang of hoodlums looming over you. The kiss ended quickly. Fortunately Sanji had enough sense to cover her face again before anyone could get a closer look at her. He held her hand tightly, wondering what he should do next. He had to get her out of there.

"Sanji-kun," Nami whispered. "You need to carry me out. I don't think I can make it out on my feet."

Sanji turned to look at her, but couldn't tell what was going on.

"Trust me. Just get us to some place private."

Following her instruction, he bent down to pick her up bridal style and was shocked to discovered she weighed almost twice as much as before. What was she carrying? He had to handle with care, or else Capone or his men would see something was amiss.

"Where do you think you're going? Wait here until your old man gets back." Capone and a couple of his men blocked Sanji's path.

Sanji bristled and narrowed his eyes at the shorter man. "I am taking my wife to my room. You can tell my father where he can find me." If push come to shove, he was prepare to kick the living shit out of all of them.

The stand off soon ended with Capone stepping aside.

Sanji hurried as quickly as could back to his room. Inside he carefully set Nami down and then checked on the door. No one was outside.

When the coast was clear, Nami tore off her veil. Underneath her dress she pulled out her Clima-Tact and three heavy duffel bags which landed with a loud thunk. Next she started undressing.

"Turn around and don't look," she glared when she caught him staring.

Sanji did as he was told. He had so many questions. "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to get you."

"Who's we?" he asked.

"Everyone."

"Everyone?

"I mean, everyone."

"Wait, what happened to Pudding?"

Nami giggled. "She's a little detained. You have the Rosy Life Riders to thank for that."

"Duval is here? Duval is involved." Sanji winced at the thought of owing anything to that narcissistic shithead.

"Well who else is good at kidnapping? You can turn around now, Sanji-kun."

Sanji almost had a nosebleed. Decked in a black skin-tight jumpsuit, Nami was bent over, digging through one of the duffel bags and attaching several strange things to her utility belt.

"Here," Nami called and threw him one of the duffel bag. He snapped out of his reverie. "You better change. It's going to get rough and dirty."

"Nami-san, I can't leave."

"Why not?"

Sanji turned away from her. "It's complicated," he stated forlornly.

"Look, we already know about your family and no one really cares."

"I don't want to put any of you in danger."

"We're always in danger. We're pirates," Nami said exasperatedly, touching her forehead.

"This is different."

"No, it's not," she paused. "Luffy made another alliance, you know."

"Again?" That idiot. He shouldn't be making alliances willy-nilly. It's not the same as making friends.

"He also told everyone not do anything until he came back with you. Said you were worth one thousand men."

"He did?" A thousand men. That had a nice sound to it. He wondered if the stupid marimo was there to hear that.

"Come with me, Sanji-kun. Escape. We're all waiting for you. We're already in hot water with Big Mom. We're kidnapped her daughter so I can sneak in here."

Then it dawn on Sanji. "You came to rescue me."

Nami stopped what she was doing and nodded.

"Thank you, Nami-san!" He ran up and gave her a big hug. He lifted her off her feet and swing her around.

"Okay, okay, be quiet. They'll hear us."

He set her down.

"One more thing. Just to let you know. That kiss was the freebie. The next time you kiss me, it's going to cost you."


End file.
